From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Main St., Ayer, MA. 35.
View across the dirt Main Street of Ayer, MA, showing a line of two and thre-story Victorian era brick and frame commercial buildings with awning-sheltered storefronts. Opposite is a more modern, flat-roofed two story structure. A trolley line runs along the right hand side of the street and under a railroad bridge in the distance. The downtown is quiet; only a few early motor cars and people populate the scene. The trolley rails, telephone poles and wires, paved sidewalks, and fire hydrants indicate a level of modernity in Ayer; the date is probably around 1920. The downtown's 1989 nomination to National Register of Historic Places reads "...This section of Main Street mostly developed between 1872 and 1898 as a hub of railroad and roadway-based economic activity." The junction of two rail lines, one north-south, the other east-west, Ayer was incorporated in 1871 and named for pharmaceutical industrialist James Cook Ayer. The older storefronts on the left bear signs for: the Huntley S. Turner Print Shop, a shoe store, Brown's Lunch for Ladies and Gents, Gasoline, Drugs, a barber pole. The newer block opposite is the J.J. Barry & Company Housewares Store, advertising "Glenwood Ranges, Complete House Furnishings, and Ice Cream/Soda/Cigars".
